Sunday A&E: Behind the Scene

Jan. 3, 2013

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IPTV ranks No. 1 nationwide

When “Downton Abbey” returns for a third season at 8 tonight on Iowa Public Television, its central Iowa fans won’t be alone. IPTV in the Ames and Des Moines market is the most-watched public television station in the country, according to Nielsen Media Research and TRAC Media Services. The station’s Channel 11 ranked No. 1 in both the February and May 2012 sweeps periods.

IPTV tracks audience numbers only in central Iowa, due to budget constraints, but previous data have shown similar viewing patterns statewide.

Rambling Rose returns to Old Capitol

There may not be a lot of harmony in Congress these days, but there is in the senate chamber of the Old Capitol in Iowa City. The museum’s rosewood grand piano, affectionately named Rose, had her ivories tickled during a homecoming concert last Sunday. She returned in November from the Steinway factory in New York after nine months of repairs.

Rose came to Iowa in 1878, when a Burlington businessman (who made a fortune in the California gold rush) bought the piano for his wife for $1,000, according to the Burlington Hawk Eye. The piano was passed down through the family until the 1940s, when it was sold for $25 to Burlington’s Free Methodist Church. The church traded it in 10 years ago, and it made its way to the West Music Co. in Iowa City, where staffers decided it should go to the Old Capitol Museum.

The piano was installed in the chamber in 2006 and was played in the concert series there until last year’s trip to New York, where technicians operated on Rose’s guts to bring her sound up to Steinway’s modern-day standards. The model is one of just five still in existence and estimated to be worth $135,000.

The movers had a tough challenge, both in 2006 and again in November. At 8 feet 6 inches and 1,500 pounds, ol’ Rose was too big for the Old Capitol’s spiral staircase. They lifted her through the window with a crane.

East Village gallery adds to collection

Santa was good to the Steven Vail Fine Arts Project Room. The East Village gallery recently acquired some big-name prints by Toulouse-Lautrec, Magritte, Lichtenstein and others.

The gallery’s current 15-artist show “Sourced,” which questions the trustworthiness of photography, remains through Jan. 25.

Read arts reporter Michael Morain’s blog at DesMoinesRegister.com/morain, and see all arts and theater coverage at DesMoinesRegister.com/OnStageIowa.